loue of death now prayes the hypocrite Nights silent reigne had robb'd the World of light To lend in lieu a greater benefit Repose and sleepe when euery mortall brest Whom care or griefe permitted tooke their rest But Cato's brest was not alone set free From perturbation and anxietie By vertues constant vse for soft repose Or sleepe the common end but to compose And raise it selfe vnto an act more high The contemplation of eternitie In contemplation the vntroubled Soule Parts from the bodies bonds free from controule Of fleshly passions by no cares distracted Not as in sleepe she does to lie contracted Within her selfe and from all action cease But to imploy her purest faculties At nobler distance where no sense of sight Or outward organ can direct her flight There by her selfe the Soule can take suruey Of those high glorious bodies which display Obiects too bright for sense in their owne light Some beames and glimpses of that infinite Eternall essence from whose fulnesse they Deriue their beauties there the Soule would stay Or wishes that from lets corporeall free She might what now she cannot plainly see Those formes and does in that desire imply Her owne vndoubted immortalitie But ere the minde of man can fitted be To search the depth of true Philosophy It must be purg'd by morall rules and freed From impious lusts from vice of thought and deed And as a wise Physitian euer giues Before his medicines cleane preparatiues So let no Soule contemplate till it be Prepar'd and purg'd by sound moralitie First let it practise vertue here before With contemplations wings it dare to soare In search of that which is the perfect'st good And height of all that can be vnderstood Lest as in Physicke th' vnpurg'd humours may Distract the medicines working force so they Not purg'd from vices through false glasses see And oft deceiu'd in speculation be Vnto thy selfe first morall Physicke giue And then securely be contemplatiue So cleans'd was Cato's soule and fit was he For strictest precepts of Philosophy Since vertues paths which rough to others seeme Long vse had made habituall to him To whom the Fates present as now on high His thoughts were soaring to eternitie An obiect fit casting his eye aside Diuinest Plato's Phaedon he espy'd Oh welcome Booke sent from the gods quoth he To teach a dying man Philosophy And though thou canst not further or controule The resolution of my fixed soule Since Fate has doom'd my end yet may'st thou giue Comfort to those few houres I haue to liue Man's Soule immortall is whilest here they liue The purest mindes for perfect knowledge striue Which is the knowledge of that glorious God From whom all life proceeds in this abode Of flesh the Soule can neuer reach so high So reason tells vs if the Soule then die When from the bodies bonds she takes her flight Her vnfulfill'd desire is frustrate quite And so bestow'd in vaine it followes then The best desires vnto the best of men The great Creator did in vaine dispence Or else the Soule must liue when gone from hence And if it liue after the body fall What reason proues that it should die at all Since not compounded as the body is And mixt of euer-fighting contraries But one pure substance like it selfe and may By reasons rules subsist alone for aye And though we yeeld that God who did create Can if he please againe annihilate The Soule and nothing in that sense can be Indissoluble saue the Deitie Yet Soules which in their nature doe agree So neare with that shall nere dâ—ssolued be Till they at last their wished end attaine And so immortall by themselues remaine True grounds quoth he diuine Philosopher Else what were vertue or true knowledge here But waking dreames Why more than beasts should we Oblige our selues to Lawes of pietie Or curbe our lusts Oh why should vertue be Iudg'd by the wisest true felicitie Before wealth honour pleasure Vertue here Does not alas so beautifull appeare But poore and wretched rather nor is she Vnlesse which in this life we doe not see Some fairer substance or true forme she haue Ought but an emptie name or Fortunes slaue The wisest men are glad to die no feare Of death can touch a true Philosopher Death sets the Soule at libertie to flie And search the depth of that Diuinitie Which whilest imprison'd in the body here She cannot learne a true Philosopher Makes death his common practice while he liues And euery day by contemplation striues To separate the soule farre as he can From off the body what 's the death of man But separation of those two Should he That euery day did striue in some degree To gaine this freedome feare it at the time When nature has allotted it to him Would birds incag'd that with all motions trie And seeke all wayes to gaine their libertie The cage set ope refuse to flie from thence Nay more haue louers in impatience Forc'd out their liues and violently fled Into the other World to finde their dead Deare loues And should the Soule which here below Clos'd in the body euery day did wooe And court that knowledge which is perfect blisse Refuse to goe and finde it where it is Then when the gods haue open'd her the way But here till then the Soule is bound to stay Nor must she leaue her station till that God Dee call her hence that gaue her this abode Here Cato stopt and paws'd is death quoth he Vnlawfull then till rude necessitie Inforce a man to taste it And must I Weare this loath'd life till Caesar bid me die Is not the fatall ouerthrow so late In Thapsus fields and ruine of the State Necessitie of death enough for me May I not thinke the gods in that decree The death of Cato But must hold my hand Expecting till the Conquerour command And giue more power to him whose lawlesse might Already has vsurp'd aboue his right Or begge for life acknowledging him so My Lord whom iustly I adiudg'd Romes foe So saue my life by sinning or elâ—e die With one sinne more if mercy he deny But this sure hand shall saue that hazard now Plato and all diuinest Lawes allow Rather than act a crime a man should die Should I take life from Caesar's clemencie It would be iudg'd by all what ere were ment I did approue of Caesar's gouernment How great a crime might mine example proue How great a wrong to Rome and all that loue Her Lawes and liberties Great Pompey's sonnes That now doe arme the Westerne regions And for their Countrie yet intend to fight Might thinke themselues excus'd if I submit And from their iustest resolution swerue When old free Cato were content to serue I le trie since most assur'd the Soules doe liue What Lawes to vs the other World will giue For sure the gods ' mongst Soules departed hence Twixt good and bad will put a difference Those happy Soules that while they liued
whilest his siluer streame From seuerall channells oft it selfe doth meet And oft it selfe with wanton kisses greet So those faire riuolets which for the food Of liuing bodies beare the crimson blood To euery part within the liuer meet And there with kisses number lesse doe greet Themselues and as they through each other glide Make many knots as if they tooke a pride In their strange foldings and themselues did please In those admired Anastomoses This fertile region whose extension makes A iust triangle from the letter takes Delta for name whose basis is the Sea Whose two sides Niles two widest channells be For all the other fiue within those two Into the Northren Sea through Delta goe Downe from the lesser cataract Nile flowes And in one single channell Northward goes From Elephantis I le the ancient bound Twixt th'Aethiopian and Aegyptian ground Foure thousand furlongs to that spatious plaine Where Memphis stands so famed for the vaine And mispent labour of so many men Her wondrous Pyramids which had not beene If natures bountie and the wealthy soile Had not too much excus'd the Plowmans toile So many hands as there were vainly found Had beene enough t' haue made the barren'st ground Of Ammons deserts or the Libyan sands Fruitfull by working t' haue entrench'd whole lands And fenc'd their Aegypts often conquer'd Towers From Persian Graecian and Italian powers At Memphiâ— Nile his channell doth diuide That branch that flowes along the Easterne side Into the Ocean rowles his curled waues At strong Pelusium tother channell laues A thousand furlongs distant thence as he Into the Ocean falls the regions nigh To faire Canobus which by ancient fame From Menelaus Pylot tooke the name Who dying there was buried on the shore When Aegypts Crowne that iust King Proteus wore Who tooke from Priam's wanton sonne away Atrides beautious wife his rauish'd prey And to her husband after her restor'd When Troyes sack'd towers had felt the vengefull sword Of armed Greece That region which betweene Those two the widest armes of Nile is seene Is Delta which so plentifully yeelds Ceres and Bacchus rich in pasture fields And flowery meadowes where the bleating flocks And horned heards doe graze the labouring Ox Weary'd in those fat furrowes nere deceiues Hopes which the greediest husbandman conceiues There loftie Cities stand and Townes of fame Lakes flow which from those Cities take their names Butum enuiron'd with the Buticke lake Where once her Oracles Latona spake There faire Diospolis Lycopolis Hermopolis and Leontopolis Proud Cities rise There doth Busiris stand Fatall to strangers that were forc'd to land Vpon her bloody shore vntill the hand Of great Alcides freed the grieued land From that fell Tyrants reigne whose name the towne Yet beares neere that is that faire Citie knowne By Venus name there faire Panephysis Tanitis Xois and Cynospolis And Sais chiefe of all the region In which Minerua's stately Temple 's showne Where fam'd Psammiticus entombed lies There also Mendes famous walls doe rise Where Pan th' Arcadian god is worshipped And goates ador'd there goates as we haue read Doe mix with womankinde so got was he That lou'd the boy turn'd to a Cypresse tree But now to know the future warres successe The King aduis'd by Dioscorides Ere from Canobus he through Delta passe Since there Serapis stately Temple was Resolu'd to craue that Oracles aduice Commands the Priests prepare a sacrifice This snake-like god Serapis seated there Whom all rich Aegypt and the nations neere Deuoutly worship and from euery port To his vndoubted Oracle resort Speakes not to men like other gods nor snewes His truth by voyce as horned Ammon does Norlike their Apis fore-declaring good Or bad by taking or refusing food Nor like the Delphian Phaebus doth possesse In killing rage a wretched Prophetesse Making sad death the punishment or hire Of euery soule his fury doth inspire But gently glides into a sleeping brest By dreames instructing our repose and rest In truths that can be by no labour gain'd There only knowledge is with ease attain'd To this renowned Temple farre and neere Th' Aegyptian Lords and Princes come to heare Truth without helpe of senses and to know By dreaming there their future weale or woe Why should this god his knowledge then declare To men when men least fit for knowledge are And chuse to come to them at such a time When they no duties can returne to him Is it his bountie or his power to show That men so taught may plainly see they owe Nothing at all to studies of their owne But to his bountie and his power alone That then can make them vnderstand aright When they are rest of vnderstanding quite Or else the god when men can exercise Their powers and intellectuall faculties Will not descend with their weake thoughts to ioyne Commixing human reason with diuine Within the Temples inmost roome a bed Of richest purple wrought with gold was spred To which the King was by the Priests conuay'd And there to take his dreaming vision lay'd No dreames at all within that sacred roome But such as were diuinely sent might come Others which from complexions difference Or naturall humors flow'd were banish'd thence And those which from the studies of the day Or cares arose in th' outward Temple stay And there together flie in companies Of different colours shapes and qualities Faire sanguine dreames that seeme to cheere the night With beautious shapes and rosie wings as bright As is the morning or those flowers that grace In mid'st of spring the painted Flora's face Within the Temple merrily doe sport To whom the little Cupids oft resort The little Cupids from faire Venus groue Stealing by night doe thither come and loue With those bright sanguine dreames to passe away The howers of night in sport and amorous play There dreames of choller in a flame-like hew Through th' aire like little fierie Meteors flew With swift and angrie motion to and fro As if they sought within that place a foe Sometimes vp to the Temples roofe on high They soare as if they meant to scale the skie Or some impossible atchieuement sought T' allay the thirst of an aspiring thought But downe below with sad and heauy cheere On dead mens Tombes and euery Sepulcher The duskie dreames of melancholly light With sable wings like Bats or birds of night Fluttering in darkest corners here and there But all alone and still each other feare Courting dead skulls and seeming to inuite The dismall ghosts for company by night There all along the Temples whited wall Phlegmaticke lazy dreames not wing'd at all But slow like slimie Snailes about doe crawle And euermore are thence afraid to fall And so be drown'd for on the floore below They doe suppose deepe pooles of water flow But swift as thoughts can flie as windes doe blow Or winged lightning in a moment goe The flatuous dreames through th' aire sometimes with noyse Like the farre-off affrighting thunders voyce Besides a thousand
here By pure and perfect contemplation were Abstracted from the body that with true Desires did oft the heauenly beauties view Shall thither goe when they from hence are fled To haue their ioyes and knowledge perfected Within the Heauens shall they for euer be Since here with Heauen they made affinitie But those darke Soules which drowned in the flesh Did neuer dreame of future happinesse That while they liued here beleeu'd or lou'd Nothing but what the bodies taste approu'd When they depart from hence shall feare the sight Of Heauen nor dare t' approach that glorious light But wander still in dismall darknesse neere Their bodies whom alone they loued here Those sad and ghastly visions which to sight Of frighted people doe appeare by night About the Tombes and Graues where dead men lie Are such darke Soules condemn'd t' accompany Their bodies there which Soules because they be Grosse and corporeall men doe therefore see How different shall the Soules condition be If this quoth he be true Philosophy As true it is nor doe I thinke it lesse If vertue be the way to happinesse And that be vertue which we men haue thought What in-bred reason to our Soules has taught And Lawes commanded vs if such thou be Oh vertue Cato still has follow'd thee And neuer from thy hardest precepts sweru'd Nere has this Soule the bodies pleasures seru'd What doubts can shake my long securitie But doubts where frailtie is will euer be Farewell fraile World what here we cannot see I goe to finde cleare truth and certaintie Then with a fatall stroke he pierc'd his brest At noise of which his seruants vainely prest In to preuent the Fate nor could they lend Helpe to his life but trouble to his end Who sadly shew'd death could not be deny'd And rending wider his large wound he dy'd The Citizens with honour did interâ—e That spotlesse mansion of a Soule so cleare Caesar from Thapsus now secur'd from foes By that full conquest to Vzzita goes With ease possessing there all Scipio's store Of corne and armes and where the Sword before Threaten'd his march where horrid dangers lay And ambushes he now findes quiet way To Adâ—umetum backe where he bestowes A cheerefull pardon on his yeelding foes Since now all Affricke from his feares was free And Fortune had secur'd his clemency Marching away to Vtica from thence Humbly receiu'd by all the Citizens Who then solemniz'd Cato's funerall He sigh'd and thus complain'd Why did'st thou fall Oh enuious man Rather than not depriue Caesar of honour Cato could not liue How sadly cruell hast thou beene to me Against thy selfe to wrong my clemency And shew thy death a greater enemy Than all thy liuing power or armes could be To kill my ioyes thou dy'st choosing to be Lamented rather than embrac'd by me It is my sorrow not my loue is sought What strange rewards haue all my mercies got That greatest Romans rather chose to flie To death it selfe than to my clemency So haplesse Pompey while he fled from me Durst rather trust th' Aegyptian treachery And there to perish by ignoble hands Than liue with Caesar thinking barbarous lands Better than Rome with vs but he againe Hop'd to repaire his strength thou in disdaine Of Caesar dy'st but yet my goodnesse shall Orecome thy enuy and quiâ—e frustrate all Thy scope in death I le giue all dues to thee Thy sonne in honour shall remaine with me And to the World shall witnesse thou didst die By thine owne enuy not my crueltie Then to his grace he takes th' inhabitants Of Vtica and for his armies wants Commands prouision and while there he stayes The Cities walls and fortresses suruayes Walking not farre from off the Towne he saw Vpon the sandy banke of Bagrada Which slowly there his muddy waues doth moue Within that Countrey rare a stately groue Not wide in circuit where an awfull shade The meering boughs exiling Phaebus made That shady groue whilest with a curious eye Caesar suruey'd he chanced to espy Within a deepe and vast descent of ground The iawes of Taenarus that balefull bound Twixt earth and hell is not a blacker roome To which they say the ghosts infernall come A Caue there was in which no cheering light At all ere peep'd but sad and drery night A squallid filth and mouldinesse had made From whence exhaled stinches did inuade The vpper aire Whilest Caesar in amaze Doth neerely view the horrour of the place His longing thoughts a Libyan standing by Taught by tradition thus doth satisfie This denne Oh Caesar which for many a yeare Hath emptie stood and freed the land from feare A monstrous Serpent by Heauens vengeance bred The plague of Affrick once inhabited The earth a greater monster neuer bare Not Hydra might with this dire Snake compare Nor that great Dragon whose still waking eyes Medea charm'd when Colcho's golden prize The venturous Iason bore to Thessaly Nor that as great and watchfull too as he Whom great Alcides conquer'd to possesse The glittering orchard of th' Hesperides Nor though the Sunne that mighty Python slew Did ere the Sunne a greater Serpent view The seuerall Snakes that out of Libya's slime Are bred might all haue beene combin'd in him Nor could Medusa's head had all the blood At one place fall'n produce a greater brood A hundred ells in length was his extent When he vpon this side the riuer went With his long necke stretch'd out what ere he spy'd With ease he seized from the other side With Lions here he fill'd his hungry maw That came to drinke the streames of Bagrada And fiercest Tigers all besmear'd with blood Of cattell slaine became themselues his food When first the Roman armies sailing ore And threatning Carthage on the Libyan shore Were led by Regulus whose tragicke fall Sadly renown'd the Spartan Generall Here then this hideous monster did remaine The army marching on you spatious plaine Three Roman Souldiers by ill Fate drew neere To quench their fiery thirst the riuer here And tempted by these shady trees to shunne A while the scorching fury of the Sunne Entring the wood downe to the streame they stoope And take in helmets the coole liquour vp When suddenly surpris'd with chilling feare A horrid hissing through the aire they heare And from the den the Serpents head appeares At once amazing both their eyes and eares What should they doe For helpe they could not call The Serpents hissing loud had filled all The wood nor strength nor hearts had they to fight Nor scarce did any hope appeare by flight Nor could their trembling hands the helmets hold When straight the Serpent from his scaly fold Shot forth and seized one who calling on His fellowes names in vaine was swallowed downe And buried in the Monsters hungry maw His horrid destiny when th' other saw They leapt into the streame to saue their liues But that alas to them no safetie giues For forth his long twin'd necke the Serpent stretch'd And swimming Hauens in